Criminal Justice

“ No Happy Anniversary for the Democrat Early Release Program ,” reads a statement from the California state Senate Republican Caucus. I can understand why they'd be unhappy at the early release of Democrats, but I don't think that's what they mean. They're referring instead to criminal justice realignment under last year's AB 109 . It took effect Oct. 1, 2011. The narrative is familiar to anyone on the email list of police unions or California Republicans and it goes like this: Democrats adopted realignment , Gov. Jerry Brown signed it into law, inmates got out of prison early, and many of these people who should still be behind bars committed new crimes, including rape, attempted murder, kidnapping and robbery.

Brandon Spencer, the 21-year-old former gang member sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for attempted murder, may have sobbed like a toddler Friday after learning that the next several decades of his life will be spent behind bars, but he deserves little sympathy, wrote Times columnist Sandy Banks on Monday. But several of our readers had a much more charitable, even forgiving, attitude toward Spencer. The two sides don't dispute the facts: A gun-toting Spencer showed up at a Halloween party at USC in 2012 looking to exact revenge on a gang rival; several shots later, three innocent bystanders in addition to Spencer's target were injured.

In his speech to the American Bar Assn. on Monday, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. sounded more like a fierce critic of the federal criminal justice system than its formal leader. He described some federal mandatory minimum prison terms as "excessive" and "draconian" and said "they oftentimes generate unfairly long sentences. " He asserted that "people of color often face harsher punishments than their peers," and he more broadly lamented that "too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason.

Sixteen teenagers being sold as prostitutes--some reported missing by their families--were rescued by authorities in the lead-up to Super Bowl XLVIII in New Jersey, the FBI announced Tuesday. Police from cities including Yonkers in New York and Atlantic City in New Jersey also arrested 45 people who potentially face prostitution-related charges. The FBI said some of those arrested said they traveled to New Jersey from other states with the intent to capitalize on the large number of people visiting the New Jersey-New York area for the Super Bowl. The arrests and recovery cap a two-week-long law pre-Super Bowl law enforcement effort as authorities face pressure from human rights groups to crack down on human trafficking.

Last week, I interviewed Richard Riordan about his views on criminal justice, civil liberties and the Los Angeles Police Department. I was interested because if he's elected mayor, he will be deeply involved in the criminal justice system. The mayor names the Police Commission, which sets Police Department policy, and--with the approval of the City Council--appoints the police chief. The record of Riordan's opponent, Councilman Michael Woo, is well known in the area of criminal justice matters.

An expanding corporation formed in 1995 to counsel admitted misdemeanor criminal offenders in lieu of prosecution is moving into a roomier office in Van Nuys City Hall. The City Council gave unanimous approval this week to a city plan to lease about 300 square feet of space to American Justice Associates, a private company started by a former Sacramento prosecutor.

If you have any vestiges of faith in the court system, you'll be sobered and numbed by "Criminal Justice" (HBO cable tonight at 9). The production is a penetrating, boiler room, jailhouse story and an incisive directing debut by writer Andy Wolk. But the ultimate wallop is thematic: the deal-making among lawyers, defendants and the bench that makes plea bargaining more urgent than the primary issue of guilt or innocence.

Former Mayor Marion Barry, who has been sentenced to six months in jail for a cocaine conviction, is being considered as a criminal justice teacher at the University of the District of Columbia, a school official said Thursday. Barry could begin teaching undergraduate students in the school's criminal justice department as soon as Monday, the beginning of the new semester.

Norval Morris, 80, a former dean of the University of Chicago Law School and internationally recognized expert on criminal justice and prison reform, died of heart failure Saturday at Chicago's Mercy Hospital. A professor of law and criminology, he wrote extensively about criminal justice reform and worked with the United Nations on issues involving the treatment of criminals. He also advocated education and training programs for prison inmates.

I read with considerable interest your column about Larry Hatch and Sgt. Rodriguez . No, justice was not served, but such events are not uncommon in Orange County. A previous and even more outrageous incident may have set the stage for this travesty. (On April 7, 1988), a Marine got into an argument with several members of the Cal State Fullerton football team in a bar. The argument continued outside, where two of the football players simultaneously struck the Marine's head and he fell dead to the pavement.

Texas executed a Mexican citizen late Wednesday despite objections from Mexico, a former Texas governor and U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry. Edgar Tamayo Arias, 46, was put to death at 9:32 p.m. Central time for killing a Houston police officer in 1994, according to Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Tamayo made no last statement, Clark said. Tamayo's attorneys fought until the last minute to save his life, appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution.

Re "Why Snowden deserves a pardon," Opinion, Dec. 22 In making the case for a presidential pardon of Edward Snowden, professor Jonathan Turley reveals why a pardon will not be granted. Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush's pardon of the Iran-Contra conspirators and the current administration's failure to prosecute National Intelligence Director James Clapper for congressional perjury or its predecessors for war crimes, reflects that our nation has devolved into a two-tiered system of criminal justice entailing harsh penalties for ordinary citizens and near-impunity for our political and financial elites.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown cracked down on sex offenders who disarm their electronic trackers while on parole, signing legislation Saturday requiring that they stay in jail once they are caught. Some counties with severely crowded jails have freed such offenders almost immediately after detaining them for tampering with the GPS devices, a Times investigation found this year. The bill Brown approved requires that the offenders be sentenced to 180 days and serve their entire parole revocation in jail.

Two years ago, California overhauled its criminal justice system by shifting responsibility for many felons from the state government to the counties. There is no denying that the change was abrupt. Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law the Public Safety Realignment Act, also known as AB 109, on April 4, 2011, and followed up with a companion bill that fleshed out many of the funding details in June of that year. Counties then had just three months to prepare their jails, their law enforcement agencies and their probation departments to be ready for the Oct. 1 implementation date, after which defendants convicted of lower-level felonies were sent to jails instead of state prisons, and felons released from prison after serving sentences for lower-level crimes came under the supervision of county probation officers instead of state parole agents.

In his speech to the American Bar Assn. on Monday, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. sounded more like a fierce critic of the federal criminal justice system than its formal leader. He described some federal mandatory minimum prison terms as "excessive" and "draconian" and said "they oftentimes generate unfairly long sentences. " He asserted that "people of color often face harsher punishments than their peers," and he more broadly lamented that "too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason.

A motive remains unclear in the slaying of 36-year-old Army veteran and soon-to-be college graduate Maribel Ramos, whose body was found in a remote Orange County canyon. Authorities on Friday announced that they had arrested her roommate in connection with the slaying. Police said Kwang Chol "KC" Joy, 54, voluntarily submitted to an interview with detectives after he was contacted Friday morning, and was later arrested on suspicion of killing Ramos. Police declined to release additional information, saying that the case was being submitted to the Orange County district attorney's office.

Forced out of the comfort of climate-controlled libraries and classrooms, some Orange County law students are rolling up their sleeves and sweating over motions, witnesses, and police and autopsy reports.

The county Social Services Agency may have to lay off hundreds of employees if the budget picture for next year turns out to be as bleak as forecast, the agency's director said Friday. A directive was sent last week to many county agencies and departments to draw up contingency plans based on 22% cuts in the part of their budgets funded by the county and the agency heads have until Wednesday to respond.

Detectives are investigating the discovery of a body found in a remote area of Modjeska Canyon in Orange County, authorities said late Thursday. Orange County sheriff's Lt. Tim Rainwater confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that Orange Police Department officers went out to perform an investigation near the intersection of Santiago Canyon Road and Jackson Ranch Road about 5:15 p.m. Thursday. Rainwater said police called again later requesting assistance with traffic control and the Sheriff's Department sent out help about 6:30 p.m. Rainwater said he believed police units were still on scene, but stressed that the Sheriff's Department was not clear on the nature of the investigation.

Dependable and steady, Maribel Ramos was a hard-charging Army veteran just a couple of weeks away from graduating from college with a degree in criminal justice. Beyond all else, friends agree, she was not the kind of person who'd simply walk away. But Ramos, 36, has been missing for 11 days, seen last on surveillance footage turning in her rent check at her apartment complex in Orange on May 2. She was reported missing the next day, a Friday, after she failed to show up for a speaking commitment at a veterans group event and then never showed at the softball game she'd played weekly for almost six years.